The operator of Africa's biggest natural gas plant, Nigeria LNG, is seeking a loan of US$10 billion from domestic and international lenders to expand its operations with a seventh train, the company's chief executive Tony Attah told Bloomberg in an interview.
Nigeria LNG signed earlier this week a letter of intent (LOI) for the Train 7 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.
SCD Group is the preferred bidder for the Train 7 project, Attah said at the signing ceremony.
"With the signing of the LOI we hope that by the end of October a Final Investment Decision will be signed for Train 7. This will ensure we attain our ambition of increasing our production by 35%," Nigeria LNG said on Twitter.
In order to finance the construction of Train 7, Nigeria LNG is now looking to raise as much as US$2 billion from the top ten domestic lenders, Attah told Bloomberg. The company will go for the remainder of the funding-US$8 billion-to foreign banks and export credit agencies, the manager said.
"We have done the financial market pitch to know who has capacity," Attah told Bloomberg.
Train 7 is estimated to cost US$7 billion to build, while another US$3 billion will be necessary for the construction and installation of pipelines to feed the new facility and for natural gas gathering projects, according to Bloomberg.
Nigeria joins the largest LNG exporters in the world-Qatar, Australia, and the U.S.-in expanding its LNG export capabilities.
Nigeria LNG sees demand from emerging markets as the key driver of future LNG sales growth, including new markets such as Jordan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the company's CEO told Bloomberg.
Nigeria LNG's shareholders are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) with a 49-percent stake, Shell with 25.6 percent, France's Total with a 15-percent interest, and Italy's Eni SpA with a 10.4-percent share.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More